ICYMI — Ohioans Fight the Purge During Statewide Weekend of Action

In case you missed it… This weekend hundreds of volunteers joined the Ohio Democratic Party’s “#FThePurge” Weekend of Action and made tens of thousands of calls to previously registered voters who have been purged recently because of the aggressive policies of Jon Husted and current Secretary of State Frank LaRose.

This weekend is just the start of a year-long voter expansion campaign to register and empower voters in communities across Ohio — particularly in those places hardest hit by the purging. Precincts that have a high proportion of lower-income, young and African-American residents have been more heavily impacted by voter purging, a 2016 Reuters analysis found.

Ohio’s voter purging policy had Democrats working the phones over the weekend. The directive to clear out registrations deemed dormant prompted a lawsuit against then-Secretary of State Jon Husted which went to the U.S. Supreme Court last year.

The Ohio Democratic Party held a “Fight the Purge” event over the weekend to contact people who have been removed from the state’s voter rolls.

The state Democrats said the goal of the event was to call people who may not even realize they’re no longer eligible to vote, and encourage them to re-register.

In downtown Cuyahoga Falls, more than a dozen people worked from a list of about 2,000 voters at an event hosted by Crooked River Action. Organizer Barbara Kaplan said she’s finding that many of those purged are simply transient voters.

We’re taking part in @OHDems Weekend of Action to fight the voter roll purge in Ohio! Thanks to the GOP, Ohio has one of the most aggressive voter purging systems in the US. We’re proud to join Ohioans across the state in reaching out to those who were purged! #FThePurgepic.twitter.com/2NmVudSTkZ

Mayor Roe is helping us re-register purged voters today. If we had a bell to ring every time we talked to someone who didn’t know they had been purged, her arm would be sore from ringing it so much! #FThePurgepic.twitter.com/m3nUomTEcs